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Bakari narrated harrowing but familiar tales of alleged abuse in the hands of a foreign employer.
- Last month, Bakari’s mother appealed to the government of Kenya to repatriate her daughter who was allegedly being mistreated in Saudi Arabia.
Image: STEVE MOKAYA
Barely a month since the Star carried a story of Kenyan women facing mistreatment in Saudi Arabia, 10 of the girls have been repatriated home.
Kasha Bakari, a 22-year-old woman from Jomvu, is among the 10 who came back.
She narrated harrowing but familiar tales of alleged abuse in the hands of a foreign employer.
Bakari came back to Kenya just two months after travelling to Saudi Arabia, where she had gone to seek better opportunities to uplift her poverty-stricken family.
In an interview with the Star on Friday afternoon, Bakari narrated how she faced a torrent of sexual and physical abuse from her employer while in Saudi after travelling there on August 10 this year.
“My employers will now and again try to sexually harass me. He would sometimes invade my privacy by entering my room at night," she said.
She said she tried to reach out to the agency that had taken her to Saudi Arabia to find her another employer, but all was in vain.
Bakari said the agency officials would sometimes lock her in a room and only offer one meal a day, accusing her of breaching the contract that stated she should stay in Saudi Arabia for at least two years.
“They also told me that my mother was spreading false information about them (agency) in the media and punished me for that. I was only given half a bread per day,” she said.
Bakari consider herself lucky to have returned home safe and alive.
“I was threatened not to disclose any information regarding what I went through while in Saudi Arabia,” she said.
Last month, Bakari’s mother, Zeina Hussein, appealed to the government of Kenya to repatriate her daughter who was allegedly being mistreated in Saudi Arabia.
According to her mother, the agency had asked them to raise part of the air ticket fee before they could facilitate her daughter's return.
"At first they was adamant that I first pay her Sh150, 000 — the cost she claimed she incurred in facilitating her travel and logistics to Saudi Arabia before she starts the process of bringing my child home," Hussein said
"But after I reported the case to the National Employment Authority, she said I raise Sh30, 000 and she will chip in with Sh15, 000 to pay for the daughter's air ticket."
Muslim for Human Rights rapid response officer Francis Auma has been following up on these cases of Kenyan immigrants being mistreated in Saudi Arabia.
Auma said in the last two months they have received seven reports of Kenyan domestic workers who are suffering in the hands of their employers in Saudi Arabia.
He urged the government to ban further trips for Kenyan workers to Saudi Arabia until a proper mechanism is put in place to ensure the safety of Kenyans abroad.
(edited by Amol Awuor)